Housing Starts Fall in December

Housing starts dropped 4% in December while building permits rose to the highest level in a year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

Starts fell to an annual rate of 557,000 units, Commerce said. The level was lower than economists' projections of a 572,000 pace, Bloomberg reported.

Building permits, an indicator of new construction, rose 11% to a 653,000 annual rate, the highest level since October 2008. Economists had forecast permits to fall to a 580,000-unit rate.

Single-family home starts, which account for about 85% of starts, decreased 6.9% to a 456,000 annual rate. Work on multifamily units, which are often more volatile, climbed 12% to a 101,000 rate.

Three of the four national regions showed declines in December, led by the a 19% drop in the Northeast. The South saw a 3.3% increase.